Increasingly, being a good culture fit is key to landing a job, especially a position at a desirable company. It’s not a World War 2 “guys on a mission” movie: you can’t just bring the technical acumen and a bad attitude with you and expect to fit in because you get the job done without whining. You’ve got to be the kind of person other people actively want to be around and work with for what could be years. So read on for some tips on how to get across your culture fit bona fides during the limited time you’ve got in the interview chair.
1.) What do they mean by “good culture fit”?– Actually, nobody is exactly sure. It doesn’t just mean you know the company’s product and are excited about it, or that you seem like a fun person who is going to be down for the company’s exclusive perks. Some hiring managers continually hire people who they feel they have some commonalities with, often right down to physical characteristics and temperament. They call this the “beer test,” meaning that the person conducting the interview feels comfortable enough with the potential hire that they’d go have a beer with them.
2.) Show off your soft skills– Your soft skills are the various non-technical abilities you can claim that tend to factor into how well you can fit into a new company. These are the small dashes of charisma we all have, and some of us have in surplus: being upbeat, charming, communicative, open-minded, and a good listener all are excellent examples. Soft skills are hugely important when it comes to the “gut feeling” an interviewer will have about their interviewee.
Survey: The Most Beneficial Soft Skill for Your Career
3.) Find out what they want and give it to them – Its not hard to find out what kind of person a company wants to hire: you just have to dig into the material available to you. Their social media presence, any blog postings, and their website. Companies have gotten better at subtly projecting the “kind of person” they are more likely to go for, and job-hunters have gotten better at sussing those traits out from marketing materials and job listings.
4.) Try to find a groove with your interviewer– In some fundamental ways, an interview is just like any other conversation. If you can strike some common ground with the other person, the whole enterprise will take on an accelerating lightness. With ice melted, you can proceed to get down to straight talk and real communication. Many experts say hiring managers make some fundamental decisions just 30 seconds into a job interview, so you want to locate that interviewer’s enthusiasm and humanity as quickly as you can. Be warm, friendly, and informed. And if you see any knick-knacks on their desk that you can relate to, bring out the big guns.
5.) Show enthusiasm– A fundamental culture fit question is “does this potential hire really care about what we do or are they just desperate for a job?” Every company wants to hire employees who have a genuine passion for the job at hand. It’s a good idea for you as the interviewee to come up with a list of your own questions about the company that can display your innate enthusiasm for the product.
6.) Follow-up the right way– Keep your cool, and don’t besiege anyone you talked to during the interview process with a ton of e-mail follow-ups: it’s very easy to assume someone that seems over-eager will be a pain to work with. However, make sure you do send anyone you spoke to a brief thank you note right away, letting them know how much you appreciated them taking the time to talk to you about the position, and remind them that you’re genuinely excited about the company.
